Seven full seasons after posing what often seemed like an unanswerable question, How I Met Your Mother reached a watershed moment during Monday night's premiere. Ted (Josh Radnor) finally reached the night he meets his future wife.
Needless to say, spoilers follow...
She was still obscured by her yellow umbrella, of course, but the couple's future together officially kicks off on a trains station platform -- the episode's namesake, "Farhampton." And while you ponder the likely fake-out of her hopping on a different, showrunners Carter Bays and Craig Thomas insist that's not the case.
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"There won't be a swerve," Thomas told The Hollywood Reporter and other press at a screening last week. "That's the moment. We can very honestly say it. He's moments away from meeting her."
It was the second visit to that day, only identified as "a little ways down the road," with Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) and Robin's (Cobie Smulders) wedding presumably taking place hours before.
"We've jumped deep into that day," added Thomas, admitting the actual nuptials are still off-camera. "We're still going to find the A-to-B in that day. We like jumping to endings and then not telling you the middle. Its a very awkward sort of storytelling."
As for that mother, Thomas and Bays wouldn't say whether or not it was a body double or the actual actress viewers will eventually meet. (Previous stunt mothers include series director Pamela Fryman.)
"It was definitely closed doors," Bays said of the shoot. "That moment was something we've been building to for a long time and we'll see more of that moment as the series goes on -- or ends, whenever happens."
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Elsewhere in the gang, the premiere picks up Marshall (Jason Segel) and Lily (Alyson Hannigan) at status quo, if sleepy, with their new child.
Barney and Quinn (Becki Newton) have already been doomed to a failed engagement, but the episode ends with them cuddling in a cab. Neil looks up wistfully at the skyline, a moment that might leave fans divided on what he's thing of.
"The chemistry between Neil and Cobie is so great, she doesn't even need to be in a scene with him to have chemistry," said Thomas. "When I watch that scene, it's Robin. He has his fiance asleep on his shoulder and he's thinking of Robin."